Hidden skill

Thank you for the prayers for Yumetaro-san yesterday. I have started making his quilt and that is on the docket for this afternoon. I'll be sure to let him know that you are thinking of him.

Yesterday I went to patchwork and had a good day of sewing and chatting. We are STILL working on the embroidery. (I'm afraid I lit a fire under a couple of people.)

"Uh-hum. A little more sewing and less chatting please."

When mouths and hands are trying to move at the same time it seems the mouths take priority. What a slave driver Tanya is.

Mrs. Furui cut and I got on the sewing machine while other ladies did back stitch (and chatted).

I had Mrs. Ochiai take a picture of me sewing. This USED to be my normal way of sewing for years and years. Before I had a sewing room (or even a dining room table) I would be down on the floor controlling the foot pedal with my knee. Even my Japanese friends were surprised at this hidden skill! Most Japanese sewing machines have a manual button for sewing speed but that is an impossibility for me. If you are sewing at a low table and don't do knee control well, then I suppose it is the next best thing...

My knees thank me that I usually sew at normal height these days.

Mrs. Furui sews at her dining room table too. Normally. But since the table was taken over by embroidery, tea, snacks and chatterers, the sewing machine yesterday was relegated to the low table and my "skill" was put back into use.

This is as far as we got yesterday on the bazaar quilt. Next to work on some corners...